If the World Ends
by SparkySparkyBoom
Summary: Whatever happened to the bird girl Max saved from the Institute in New York? Set after Maximum Ride the Angel Experiment. And if anyone has a better idea for a title, please tell me! *in the process of re-editing*
1. Chapters 1 to 8

Chapter 1

I could feel the cold air rushing past my face. My dark red hair was streaming back behind me. I looked down and I saw the world had been miniaturized. Buildings, houses, cars, little dots that were people. _So this is what its like to be flying_ I thought. Yes, I was flying. No, I wasn't in a plane or helicopter or anything like that. I was flying with my wings.

I was brought back to reality by the beep of a car horn. Instead of being up in the air, I was on the ground. Walking. But the one thing that is true about my daydreams is the wings. _Cue magical chimes._

Yes, the wings. You would assume that I was straight out of a fairytale or something. Although it's more like straight out of the crazy house… Most people, who don't particularly enjoy my being, call me a "genetic freak". I would prefer "avian/human hybrid", but to each their own. For those lucky few who don't know what that means, there is about 3% percent bird DNA grafted into me. Pretty sick, right?

Wrong.

I wasn't born with wings. Instead, bird DNA was grafted into me when I was a baby, by evil scientists who take demonic pleasure in ruining children's lives for the "_sake of science_". But that's not the normal way to do it. Usually the DNA is put in through the mother when she is pregnant. But the scientists, or Whitecoats, as they are more commonly referred to, saw that the DNA wasn't working right, (or so they thought) and transferred me back into the loving arms of my parents. My parents, Eve and Charlie Evans, were very grateful to have their baby back even though it was two years later.

But the year they gave me back I started developing the things I was supposed to: vision like a hawk, an enormous appetite, very strong muscles, and of course, wings.

I think my parents were a bit freaked out by the wings. I mean, who wouldn't be? But luckily for me, they didn't go all apeshit crazy on me. They cared for and accepted me like any good parents should.

By the age of ten I had an eleven foot wingspan, I was four feet and eight inches, and only weighed around seventy five pounds. I tried my best to be normal at school and with other kids, but it proved rather difficult for a competitive child, who was faster, better, and stronger than all of the other children. Plus holding your wings in tight for like, 7 hours gets pretty old pretty fast.

The good life didn't last long, however. Somehow the Whitecoats found out about me and figured it was time to take matters into their own hands. I was placed back into captivity, as if I was some sort of animal. I soon learned that instead of being brought back to the School, like I had thought; I was brought to New York. More specifically, to a little old place called the Institute.

I was there for about 3 years or so until I was rescued by Maximum Ride and her flock. They were their own little merry band of mutants, kicking butt and taking names. And they were all bird kids like me. I finally felt like I belonged somewhere.

I stayed with her flock for a while. They taught me basic survival skills, how to defend myself and some flying lessons. Even though we were on the run, eating out of dumpsters every other day, it was great. But I knew I needed to get back to my parents. I've been missing from their lives for too long. So I traveled back to my home, not only to find my parents, but also a baby sister. It was a long and tearful reunion, and now I was living the "normal" life.

Well as normal as you can get when you have 15 foot wings grafted to your back.

So here I was, Charlotte Elizabeth Evans, walking to my house. Although, now I'm no longer alone. A man, who could've easily passed as a male model, wearing a business suit, was following me. If you just glanced at him you'd think he is just some handsome businessman, but I know better. He's a human/lupine hybrid, or a wolf man, and trust me, he is no picnic.

The two most successful DNA recombinant life forms are Human/Avian and Human/Lupine. These wolf men are basically the School's own private army. They are trained to hunt and kill their prey. And right now I'm pretty sure I'm the prey.

One of his regular strides was equal to two of mine, and he was walking fast. Soon he was only a couple paces behind me. I broke into a run with him trotting after me. I knew I wasn't going to make it home in time, and sure enough he placed his beefy hand on my shoulder. The moment I felt his hand my blood ran cold. I was jerked to a stop and whipped around to face the Eraser. He grinned evilly and whispered in a voice that was as smooth as honey; "Hi there little girl."

_Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit_

"Are we going to have to this the easy way, or the _fun_ way?" he said darkly, his face morphing into a wolfish snout and fur sprouting everywhere.

My response was a snap kick to the jaw. A kick, mind you, that could've broken a normal humans jaw. Sadly it did not have that particular effect on my opponent. He just grimaced, rubbed his jaw and said "Alrighty then." And launched himself at me.

Chapter 2

_Backpack_ I thought. I quickly grabbed it from the ground. I spun around and then let go of the strap. It connected with my target and I heard a satisfying "Oomf!"

_Thank god for textbooks _I thought as I hurled myself upward and unfurled my wings, wincing slightly as I stretched them out. Gradually I rose higher. I looked down at the Eraser who was clutching his stomach.

"You can run little pig, but you can't hide!" he shouted at me.

"Eat shit, Dog Breath!" I called over my shoulder as I flew away.

The thing about flying, is that it's a really great way to clear you mind. Also it takes a lot less time than walking.

I got home with time to spare. I just hoped my mom wasn't home yet. She would have a field day if she saw me all beat up; she has a lot more important things to worry about than a couple scratches. I opened the front door slowly, bracing myself for the worst. _Maybe she won't be home. Please don't be home. Please, please-_

"Where have you been, young lady?"

I opened the door all the way and saw her standing in the doorway, her arms crossed over her chest, eyebrows raised. But the moment she took in my appearance, her face softened and went into protective/worried mom mode.

"Oh my god, Charlotte! What happened? Who did this to you?"

"Mom, calm down. Its ok, I just met an Eraser on the way home from school. No biggie." I said trying to downplay it, which did not work at all.

"'No biggie'? This is definitely a big deal! We need to get you cleaned up, make sure you're alright. No broken bones or anything?"

"Mom, seriously I'm fine. Stop worrying."

"Really? Go take a look at yourself. People are going to think you have abusive parents or something."

I sighed and walked into the bathroom. I looked into the mirror and gasped. My mom was right, my lip was split and bleeding freely, there were deep scratches from the Eraser raking his claws along my face and arms. My hair was a mess, and my shirt had longs rips in it. _Man, this was my favorite shirt…_

"See what I mean?" my mom said as she walked into the bathroom carrying a first aid kit in one hand and my baby sister in the other.I gave a slight smile, and took my sister in my lap while my mom helped patch me up.

Soon we heard the front door open, the stereotypical "Honey, I'm home!" that announced the arrival of my father. My mom called to him, and he arrived in the bathroom doorway holding up my backpack. He shot a questioning look at me, and my mom said "Charlotte tried making some new friends today."

"Mom!" I cried indignantly. She laughed, and filled my dad in on my exquisite friend-making abilities/how Erasers tend to react when you kick them in the face.

Later, over a dinner of burgers and fries, my dad asked, still concerned,

"Charlotte, are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes." I said for the umpteenth time, "Nurse Evans over here made sure of that." I nodded my head at my mom. My dad smiled, and continued

"Just the same, your mom and I have agreed that Grandma Beatrice should start giving you a ride home from now on. We don't want any more of these accidents."

"Awwh dad!" I moaned. "Why can't I ride the bus or something? Anything, other than Grandma Beatrice!"

See, Grandma Beatrice is not your average grandmother. She is your average cat lady. Her house reeks of mold, cat litter, and moldy cat litter. And without fail, every time I go over to her house all she talks about is her cats. Mr. Fluffy this, Mr. Fluffy that.

What I don't understand was how could Grandma Beatrice's driving could be safer than walking home. She is 90, can barely walk, just happens to be going blind, and yet she still has her license. I swear, she drives like some 16 year old girl, who just got her license, and has a cataract.

I could sense there was no use in arguing. I guess I would just have to get used to feeling on the edge of death every time she make a left-hand turn.

Chapter 3

BEEP!

BEEP!

BEEP!

I was startled awake by the sound of my alarm clock. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. I glanced at my clock and instantly jumped up and started rushing around, trying to get ready so I could make it to school at a reasonable time.

I arrived to my first period class, not only to find I was about fifteen minutes late, but that we also happened to be having a pop quiz.

Lovely.

As soon as the bell rang, I walked out the door of my class, sat down at the nearest bench, clutching my head. I closed my eyes and numbers and equations danced around my brain. My friend Leila passed by and asked me if I was planning on going to our next class.

"Oh! Um, right. Yeah." I muttered. I got up, my head still pounding, and followed her to our English class.

"Charlotte, could you please explain to me the author's use of symbolism in this text, please?" My head shot up, I hadn't been paying attention to anything for the past 20 minutes.

"Uh, can I go to the bathroom?"

My teacher just rolled her eyes, and the rest of the class snickered.

"Fine, but when you come back, be prepared to participate in class."

I walked out of the classroom and out into the deserted corridor. I headed towards the bathroom…

Chapter 4

"Ughh."

I groaned as I struggled to raise my head. I was in a dark, windowless room, with a cold tile floor. My hands were tied behind my back with a strip of hard plastic. I pulled myself into a somewhat sitting position, and took a deep breath to steel my nerves.

I racked my brain, trying to figure out how I got here. I remember walking to the bathroom. And… and then someone grabbed me from behind. They snagged my arms and held them painfully behind my back. I tried to struggle but they forced me down onto my knees. Then, they placed a rag over my nose and mouth. I had no choice but to breathe in the sickly-sweet smell. My eyelids drooped, I slowly stopped struggling. And then, as if someone flicked off a switch, everything went black.

At that moment I felt a strange sense of déjà vu, ice started creeping up my spine. I took a deep breath and immediately a strong chemical/disinfectant odor blasted my nose.

_Oh no, please please no…_

There was only one place I could be, the one place I've been running away from my whole life

The School.

I started shivering, fear gripped my heart. Images flashed through my mind: cages, Whitecoats, exhausting tests, painful experiments, and all of the other DNA recombinant failures I had seen come and go.

_I have to get out of here now._ I forced myself to stand, only to instantly regret it. The world was spinning and I almost threw up. I quickly decided it wise to not stand for a while.

As soon as I sat down an automatic door slid open. The bright light emitting from the doorway stunned me, and temporarily blinded me. Before I knew what was happening, rough hands dragged me out of the room. Once my eyes adjusted to the light I was greeted by the oh-so wonderful sights of The School. Whitecoats flitted around, but once I passed by most of them turned their gaze upon me

"Didn't your mother ever tell you it's rude to stare?" I snapped at them but they acted like I didn't speak.

I was brought down a long passageway and into a dimly lit room, where all the walls were lined with cages. Some of them were occupied with the saddest things I have ever seen. I wanted to scream at these people. Tell them to take glance around and see the destruction they were causing. I wanted them to understand the pain they were inflicting upon children.

I was stopped in front of a medium sized cage, unbound and unceremoniously shoved into the metal bars of the cage. The door was closed and locked with a metallic click.

Once the Whitecoats were out of the room, I urgently began thinking of a plan. Max always had a plan, or she just led people into thinking she did. _But, under the circumstances, an actual plan _is_ desired. _

The hairs on the back of my neck started to prickle, and I could feel a pair of eyes boring into the back of my head. I slowly turned to the left of me and almost screamed. I was faced with a pair of two bright yellow eyes punctuated with slits for pupils. They were staring unblinkingly at me, and seemed to be coming closer and closer. Then at last the owner of the eyes came into light.

It was a boy, who looked around my age, with shaggy blond hair, and freckles covering almost every inch of his face. He was still glaring at me, almost predatorily.

Figuring I should break the tension, I introduced myself

"Er, um, hello there… I'm Charlotte."

The boy seemed to be debating whether or not to answer me. In the end he answered, very stiffly;

"I'm Ariek." He looked me up and down, "Why are _you_ here?" he asked bluntly. I was taken slightly aback, _who does this kid think he is? _

"You don't look like some of the mistakes they bring in here." He clarified.

"Oh, well neither do you." I pointed out, "Why are you here?"

"I asked you first." He countered.

Rolling my eyes, I shook out my wings and extended them out as far.

"Holy shit" he said in an awed voice. Slightly pleased with the appropriate reaction, I folded them against my back.

"So your one of them" he gaped.

"What do you mean?" I asked, unsure if I wanted to hear the answer.

"You're one of the bird kids!" He exclaimed. "The second most successful DNA recombinant life forms! You're like a superhero!"

"Wow… that's, um, one way to look at it, I guess." I said scratching the back of my neck.

"So, what did they do to you?" I asked cautiously.

He grinned maniacally, and almost instantaneously cat ears sprouted on opposite sides of his head. His canine teeth elongated and grew to a lethal point.

My jaw dropped, my eyes bugged. I'll admit it, I was pretty amazed.

"Oh, you haven't seen anything yet." Ariek said, seeing my reaction. He held out his hand and instead of fingernails, he had a set of cat-like claws.

"Retractable claws."

Chapter 5

_Get away from me, you monsters!_

I was lying on the tile floor, panting. I was tired of being forced through all of theses torturous experiments. I had been plucked, prodded, zapped, poked, stabbed, and sedated for the past 72 hours. And all for what, you might ask?

"_For the sake of science" _

Bullshit, if you ask me. And then again, no one ever really does.

Two Whitecoats came up, and pulled me up on my feet.

"That's it, a couple more tests and you'll have a break." Someone said, in what I'm guessing he thought was a comforting tone. I was led towards a metal table with sinister looking instruments lying next to it.

Suddenly it was all too much. The room started to whirl and everything looked smeared, almost like a painting. But then, I couldn't see anyone's faces, just the outlines of their bodies. It was frightening. I cried out, and dropped to my knees. I felt a sharp sting in my arm and everything faded to white. My breathing returned to normal, my heart slowed to a normal rate. I relaxed.

It was a nice feeling. But, alas, it did not last long…

I fell into a fitful sleep, to find that demons not only had to surround me during the day, but in my dreams as well.

_I… have to… escape…_ I thought desperately. I was racing through one of those mazes made out of big, tall hedges. I had absolutely no clue what direction I was going, whether I was going deeper into the maze or out of it. All I knew was that I needed to get away from whatever that was chasing me.

I rounded a corner, and skidded to a stop. There was an opening out of the maze. But blocking the exit was the Eraser that always haunted my dreams.

"Ari…" I breathed. He smiled and cracked his knuckles menacingly. I looked behind me and found that the way I had come through was gone. It had become part of the maze walls. Ari took a step closer, smirking at my fear. He raised his hand and brought it to my throat…

"Charlotte! CHARLOTTE! Wake up!" Someone yelled. I opened my eyes and heaved a sigh. I wasn't in a maze, Ari wasn't here, and I was okay. I shook my head, and stretched.

"Are you okay?" Ariek asked, looking somewhat freaked out, "What were you dreaming about?"

"I think I know the answer to that." Said a voice from the opposite end of the room. The speaker finally came into view. Ariek gulped, the other kids cringed and hid as he passed by. He walked right up to my cage and pressed his face in real close.

"Didya miss me?"

"Goddammit Ari, why don't any of you people _stay_ dead?"

Ari chuckled and reached his hand through the cage bars and grabbed my face, forcing me to look him in the eyes.

"One of these days… God, one of these days, you won't even see it coming. Max won't be around for you to cower behind. But I promise you, you're going to feel the most pain and suffering you've ever felt. No one will be able to save you. You are going to be completely alone. But you wanna know the best part?" He asked his voice low and terrifying. Without waiting for an answer, he continued, "It'll be _all your fault_."

He pinched my cheek affectionately, stood up, and started walking out. Clearly savoring the moment, he took his time, bending down to look in the cages, waggling his finger through the bars, and laughing cruelly at the children's whimpers.

When he got to the doorway, looked back at me and in that second I saw in his eyes pure hatred and pain. So much pain, it scared me even worse than what he had said.

Then he was finally gone. All the children relaxed, and those who still had the ability to speak, talked quietly with some of the others, and stole furtive glances in my direction.

After everything had calmed down, and Ariek and I were in the middle of a debate about how far we could escape to before someone caught us, two Whitecoats came in. They were carrying something large in their arms. As they drew nearer, the form in the middle took shape into a child. She had a cascade of dirty blond hair, a long and thin body, with freckles all over her arms and legs…

Ariek knew who it was instantly.

"Hey! That's my sister! Karyanna! Kary!" Ariek yelled, but his sister didn't answer. I looked closer and saw that her gangly limbs were slack and her head lolled to the side.

"What have you done to her?" Ariek asked, outraged. But as usual no one answered him. The Whitecoats shoved Karyanna into an open cage, checked to make sure she wasn't actually dead or anything, and then left.

And thus two became three.

Chapter 6

I'm not too great at comforting people in their time of need. So when Ariek was a complete mess of anger, sadness and worry, I had absolutely no clue what to do or say. So I watched helplessly as he pulled at his hair, took deep breathes, and punched his cage in retaliation.

My only words were "Uh, hey Ariek, you might want to stop doing that. You're kind of hurting your hand." Real reassuring. Point Charlotte.

Finally though, Karyanna came to. She sat up and bonked her head on the top of the cage. Rubbing her head, she looked around, utterly confused and probably petrified.

"Kary?" Ariek called out. She turned in to direction of his voice, her eyes finally landed on him and her face flooded with relief.

"Ariek! What's going on? Where are we?" Ariek turned to me, silently asking me to break the news to her.

"I'm Charlotte, a friend of your brother's. You're in a place called The School. There are scientists here that perform… experiments on the children here. But you're brother and I are going to get all of us out of here. I promise." I explained to her, hoping I didn't just crush her spirit. But she nodded, a determined look growing on her face, as if she faces almost certain doom everyday.

"Okay, what's the plan?" She asked. Ariek looked at me sheepishly.

"Um, we're still working on it." Ariek said. She just rolled her eyes and offered up her services to help think of a plan.

Just as we were about to start brainstorming, a Whitecoat walked in and knelt by Kary's cage.

"Oh, good. You're up. Come on, you are wanted in Lab 4." Kary blinked, and said nothing. The Whitecoat opened up the door of her cage and attempted to pull Karyanna out. But she resisted with an incredible amount of strength for a girl of her size.

"Get your hands off me!" She screamed, "I wanna go home! You let me go, you bastard!" The Whitecoat, not even trying to mask his irritation, forced her out of the cage and onto the floor.

"Come on, ya little brat. We're going to do the dissection whether you want to or not."

It was in that moment that I learned one of the most interesting things about Karyanna.

She was a biter.

She chomped down on the Whitecoats hand, and refused to let go. The Whitecoat, apparently unused to having his subjects fuse their jaws to his flesh, started yelling. Really, really loudly.

While the Whitecoat danced around, still yelling, Kary slipped her hand, unnoticed, into the inside pocket of the Whitecoat's lab coat. She pulled something out, dropped it down on the floor and kicked it smoothly over to her brother.

Drawn by the commotion, none other than Jeb Batchelder walked in, white lab coat and all.

_Now that's a face I haven't seen in awhile._

He looked from Kary, who still was attached to the Whitecoat, to the Whitecoat, who looked extremely unhappy, and then back to Kary.

"Well?" He asked. Kary, finally, released the man's hand, which he cradled close to his chest.

"Scott, go get that cleaned up." Jeb said, waving the man off. He stood surveying Kary as if she was a piece of meat, rather than a human being.

"Well, well, Karyanna. That was an interesting display, wasn't it?" He asked her.

He never got his answer, I mean, unless you count being hit in the back of the head with a blunt object as an answer.

It took me a few seconds to actually process what had happened. The thing that Kary pick-pocketed from the Whitecoat was a set of keys that unlocked, you guessed it, the cages! So Ariek, being the stealthy boy he was, unlocked his cage and crept up behind Jeb, and knocked him out cold.

Mutant kids: 1

Whitecoats: 0

Chapter 7

"Alright, everyone know the plan?" I said rubbing my hands together.

Ariek and Kary both groaned and gave me exasperated looks.

"Yes! We went over it like 50 times!" Ariek said, extremely annoyed, Kary nodded in agreement.

"Sorry, I just don't want anything to go wrong." I said, looking over my shoulder. My eyes landed on the other kids in cages. My mind flashed back to when I was rescued from the Institute.

"_Kids don't belong in cages."_

I turned from Ariek and Kary and started down a row of cages.

"Um, Charlotte the door is _that_ way…"

"These kids deserve as much of a chance as we do." I stated firmly. Ariek sighed, "Start unlocking, I guess."

Chapter 8

"Go left! No! Your OTHER left!"

We were running down what we assumed was a deserted corridor. And it was, until we heard footsteps tearing down the hall, in our direction.

"Uh oh" Ariek said, grimly.

"Define 'uh oh'" Kary demanded.

"We've got company." I said.

Kary screeched to a stop, opened a door to her right and peeked inside, "Quick get in here!" She called

We all piled into the room. It was small and cramped, but it was a hell of a lot better than being caught. Thankfully most of the kids, sensing this was a critical moment, were quiet.

Ariek and I stood with our ears pressed against the door. We heard the footsteps get louder and louder, until they stopped right outside our door. I held my breath, hoping against hope that they won't open the door.

"Wait, where'd they go?" asked one voice.

"Uh, maybe they went down this way…" said another. Just at that moment one of the kids let out a little whimper. I froze, my stomach sinking with dread.

"What was that?" The first voice asked.

"I didn't hear anything."

"It came from over there, I'm sure I heard it" the voice continued as if the other one hadn't spoken.

"Look we're going to lose them, let's go or the Director is going to have our heads.

The footsteps started up again but this time growing fainter. And when we couldn't hear them anymore we stepped outside and continued our escape.

When we finally put a sound distance between us and the School, we stopped to rest and regroup. No matter how we addressed the problem, there were always a few setbacks. Like the fact that we were in the middle of Death Valley. Death fucking Valley. Or that we were a group of mutant children, with no place to go.

But our luck prevailed. One of our major problems seemingly solved itself.

Ariek, Kary and I were discussing our options when we were interrupted by a precocious two year old.

"Yo mutants! Down here!"

"Can we help you?" Ariek asked, barely suppressing a grin.

The toddler, obviously very intuitive, sensed he wasn't going to be taken seriously and cut right to the chase.

"Do ya have a plan? Cause all the other kids were justa wonderin' were we was goin'."

Ariek and Kary turned to look at me, and I was left to think of a fool proof plan in less than five seconds.

"Of course we have a plan. It's just a little complicated," I began, but was cut off by the toddler.

"I'm gonna take a wild guess here, but you don't got a plan do you?" He asked, I took a deep breath and shook my head.

"Well now that's settled, we are just gonna leave ya to your thoughts and find someplace safe, got it?"

"Wait a minute!" Ariek exclaimed, "The best plan you can come up with is to lead a bunch of mutant children into the middle of Death Valley?"

"Well at least I gots a plan, instead-a pretendin' to have one" the baby countered.

"Is there anything we can do or say that will make you change your mind?" Kary asked.

"A-nope." The baby apparently thought that was all there was too it, so with a jaunty salute, he and the other children left. As we were watching their retreating backs disappear into the horizon, Kary spoke, "I'm starting to think we need a 'that was easy' button."

Half an hour later we were at some skuzzy diner at the edge of a freeway. We sat at in the back, in the most secluded booth we could find.

"So what can I get for y'all?" asked our over perky waitress, who had the most impressive wad of gum I've ever seen.

"Could I get the All American Burger with a side of fries, the Mac 'n' cheese, a bowl of the Chicken Noodle soup, and two glasses of lemonade please?" I asked avoiding the stares coming from Ariek and Kary.

"You orderin' for the whole group hun?" the waitress asked, her bright smile faltering a bit. I smiled politely and shook my head.

As Kary and Ariek ordered food in normal quantities, all three of them kept shooting strange looks at me. I suddenly became very interested with a single thread hanging off the hem of my shirt. So with one last weird look at me the waitress left.

As soon as she was gone, Ariek turned on me, "Hey Charlotte, would you mind explaining?" he demanded.

"To what could you possibly be referring?" I questioned, feigning innocence.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about."

"Do I, really?"

He huffed and glared at me from across the table. I crossed my arms and glared right back. After a few minutes, and a couple of coughs from Kary, Ariek dropped his gaze and I grinned in triumph.

"Seriously Charlotte, could you just explain the food?"

"I just burn through calories really fast, so I need a lot of food to keep my body running." He and Kary nodded, apparently satisfied with this information.

Soon after our waitress came by with our drinks, and we were temporarily distracted. We all had sand and dust stuck in our throats.

"Where do you think we should go after this?" Kary asked, chewing on her straw. She and Ariek looked at me, expecting to hear my master plan about how we were going to take down the School and all that shit.

I quickly glanced around and my eye fell on the TV that was playing a baseball game. It was the Florida Marlins against the San Francisco Giants.

"San Francisco." I said feeling the rightness of it. Ariek nodded in agreement and Kary kept repeating it softly to herself, trying it out for size.

"Ok, All American Burger, the Lasagna, and the Chicken Tenders? The rest of your order is comin' soon hun."


	2. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Just as we were finishing up our meal, a different waitress sauntered up to our table. She had icy predator eyes and a cold smile to match.

"How are you doing?" her voice was so sweet and angelic. It sent shivers down my back. I looked over at Ariek and saw he had goose bumps up and down his arms.

"Who are you?" Kary asked with her usual tact. But the new girl was unfazed.

"I'm taking over for Cindy. She's a bit… preoccupied at the moment"

"Right, look could we get the check?" I asked.

The waitress pouted her lip and said, "Oh come on dearie, why don't you stay and chat?" and then very calmly pulled out a gun and pointed it at my head. Kary and Ariek looked stunned at first, then Ariek said, "Oh puh-lease. We were going to tip you and everything." he rolled his eyes and got in a position to pounce.

"Move and I'll pull the trigger." She stated, not even glancing at Ariek.

The waitress had a crazy grin plastered on her face and her eyes were flashing dangerously. Then completely out of nowhere a voice uttered, "Well isn't this odd."

The waitress jumped and swiveled to see who the voice belonged too. Ariek and Kary were doing the same, trying to decipher if it was a friend or foe.

With the waitress temporarily distracted, I took the liberty of smacking the gun out of her hand, and it fell and skittered across the floor. I jumped from my seat and tackled her to the ground. I got one good punch in, before she started transforming. Her face elongated into a snout, her teeth grew and came to a lethal point.

"It's been nice 'chatting' with you, but I've got to run." I snarled.

She started growling and snapping her jaws at me. I jumped off her, grabbed the others and started running. Not exactly caring where I went just as long as it put a reasonably large distance between us and the Eraser.

I pulled Ariek and Kary straight into the woods that grew along the edge of the freeway. I heard someone crashing through the trees. I ran faster, pulling them behind me. I didn't stop until I was sure that we had lost the Eraser behind us.

I was practically dragging Kary, and Ariek was gasping for breath. I stopped and let go of their wrists, Kary collapsed on the ground in a heap, and Ariek bent over, panting. I, on the other hand, was only a bit winded. I started glancing around where we had stopped, taking in all the details.

"Jesus Charlotte! How can you sprint like that and not even break a sweat?" Ariek asked with a twinge of jealousy in his voice.

I turned to him smiling, when once again I was startled by a voice.

"Aren't you going to say thank you?" I whirled around to come face to face with a boy who looked around Kary's age. He had dark glossy hair that flopped over his eyes, he was thin and wiry. He wore a plain blue t-shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his shoulders, and a pair of black jeans. He very much seemed like the kind of person who thought very much of themselves.

"Who the hell are you?" I snarled, instantly moving to stand in a slight crouch in front of Ariek and Kary.

"Tsk, tsk. Is that really the way you should talk to someone, after they just saved your sorry butt from an Eraser?" he said shaking his head in mock disapproval. Suddenly it clicked; he was the one from the diner.

"What's your name?" I asked, straightening, most of my harshness gone.

"Ethan."


	3. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Flashback

I could still hear the screaming, even though it was coming from all the way outside. It was the screams of a 7-year-old girl named Jamie. She was being ripped to shreds by Erasers. All of us were slated for extermination, or as the Whitecoats so kindly put it, being "retired".

I was trying so hard so hard not to loose it. I had to stay tough for all the younger kids here. We're starting to become a family, but then they started killing us off. Some died by a shot, others by starvation, and the ever popular Erasers,

Finally the screaming stopped. Poor Jamie. She was the one who was always cheering us up. She would tell jokes, sing songs, and remind us that life wasn't all that bad. But of course she had to be killed by bloodthirsty Erasers.

"Charlotte, what are we gonna do?" whispered a voice by my side. I looked over and saw his eyes wide with fear. "I don't know…" I said shaking my head "I don't know" I reached through the bars of our cage and grabbed his hand.

I looked up to see a middle aged Whitecoat walk in. All of us held our breath, wondering who was next. The Whitecoat walked around some, clearly savoring the moment. He had a smug look on his face, like he was the king of the world and we were his slaves. I wanted to beat the crap out of him. The Whitecoat stopped right in front of his cage; he knelt down, took out a key and unlocked the cage. The door swung open and the Whitecoat reached in. That's about when he started going crazy. Body shaking, he screamed a long blood curdling scream. The Whitecoat yanked him out and started dragging him towards the door. "NO!" I screamed out, unable to control the tears now streaming down my face. I couldn't bear to lose my best friend. I stuck my hand out through the bars again, but instead of finding his hand all I could find was the cold emptiness of his cage. "Oh, Ethan…" I sob.


	4. Chapter 11

Chapter 11/ Ariek POV

Holy mother fucking shit. This is really, really bad. I just can't get her out of my head! The way she wrinkles her nose when she laughs. How, if you look closely, she has light freckles spread across her cheeks. Her long, dark hair falls right above her elbows. Her lips are pleasantly round and full. I wish I could just reach out and-ARIEK! GET A GRIP! DON'T GET ALL SAPPY JUST BECAUSE OF A GIRL! But she's not just a girl! She's really sweet, funny, and can kick some serious Eraser ass! Oh fuck. I guess there's no point denying it anymore.

I'm in love with Charlotte Evans.


	5. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

There were a million questions racing through my head.

But the only thing that came out was "You-you aren't dead."

Ethan looked at me with mock surprise "Holy shit! Your right!"

I rolled my eyes at him. _Same old Ethan._ "You know what I mean." I vaguely remember hearing Ariek talking, but all I could do was stare at the boy I had believed to be dead.

I broke the silence, unable to bear it any longer. "So, what happened after they… they took you?" my voice faltering at the end. Ethan's face adopted a look of pure confusion. His eyebrows knit together, and he said, "You know, I'm not exactly sure. I remember being taken away into this room. Someone gave me a drink, and then everything went black. I woke up at my house. Wait, what about you?"

I processed this information, before replying, "After you they

took a couple more kids, then they stopped for the day. And then Max came-" I was cut short by Ariek, who exploded "HOLD IT! What the fuck is fucking going on?" "I for one am SUPER confused! Charlotte thought you were dead, people tricked you, who ARE you!" Kary yelled, waving her arms around. Ethan and I looked at each other and then back to the confused siblings. "Ok then." I started out "I had been taken to the Institute in New York. There I had met Ethan." "Hi." "Then the Whitecoats started killing all the other mutants off. They took Ethan and I never saw him again. About a week later Maximum Ride came and rescued those of us that were left." "Ohhhhhh" Ariek and Kary said in unison

"Ok, now that that's settled. What's next?" Ethan said, eagerly rubbing his hands together. "Rest." "Aww, but what about the crazy adventures and everything!" "Why don't we start that tomorrow? It's been a long day."

Ten minutes later saw me draped over a large branch staring at the little fire we had made. Ariek, Kary, and Ethan were sprawled out around the fire. Ethan and Kary were sharing little flirtatious looks. Ariek was being the obvious protective older brother. He had taken to throwing his pocketknife at the ground with a little more force than necessary. While looking at Ariek trying to scare Ethan, I noticed how the light from the fire made his hair look almost golden. It also made his eyes seem like they were glowing. He had yellowish eyes with slits for pupils. _Must be the cat DNA…Hmm I wonder if he has nine lives. Or if he lands on his feet every time he falls…_I drifted off, thinking that if he tried, Ariek might be able to sound like a cat.


	6. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Next morning, I was curled up on my tree branch, dreaming mutant bird kid dreams. Blissfully unaware of my three so-called friends huddled together whispering, and glancing up at me. They all nodded and smiled. Ariek and Ethan parted as Kary stepped forward. Said devious girl then proceeded to scream at the top of her extremely high lungs. Causing me to wake up instantly, jump, lose my balance, and fall to the ground with a thud.

The Butts were laughing their stupid heads off.

"I fucking hate you guys." I growled at them. Ariek, between laughter, gasped, "Love you too, Charlotte!" I looked over and saw Ethan bent over, laughing, Kary had tears steaming down her face, and Ariek was clutching his stomach. I had to smile; it was a pretty good prank. I just wished it wasn't on me.

When they finally calmed down, and wouldn't burst into a fit of giggles every time they looked at me. We cleaned camp, made sure no one could tell we were, and headed out to find the nearest train station.

The nearest train station, as it so happens, was twenty miles away from the dinky little town we were in. I had originally wanted to walk there, but Ariek, Kary, and Ethan instantly vetoed me. We asked around and found out that there was a bus that took us to the town where the station was. So we dug around in our pockets, searching for bus fare. Soon we had about a dollar fifty.

"Great! That'll pay for at least one of us!" Ethan said exasperatedly. So we took to the streets, looking on the ground, asking people.

Now there is something you should know about this town. It's probably the most closed off, rural, and desolate town ever. All there is is a couple small apartments, a gas station, and a grocery store. I think the population was like around 42. So there weren't many people to ask for money.

At last we had a nice little pile. When Ariek counted it all up we had a total of four dollars flat. We cheered and Kary even did a little victory dance.

Now we had the joy of waiting for the bus. We plopped down by withering sign that was the bus stop. We talked, mostly about what we were going to do in San Francisco. Then we stated playing hand games like slide, down by the banks, lemonade, etc. I was in the middle of a very heated game of slide with Kary when it finally came.

It was about a fifteen-minute bus drive the next town. Once we got off, Ethan took the lead.

"C'mon, this way." He called over his shoulder. As far as I knew Ethan has never been to California before, much less a teeny weenie town in the middle of nowhere.

He took us down a couple of streets before stopping abruptly.

"Look! What's that?" he said squatting down near some shrubbery.

"Um… a bush?" Ariek guessed.

"No. Under it." He thrust his hand under the branches and when he took it out there was a thick wad of cash.

"Oh my god! How did you know that was there?" Kary exclaimed.

"Couldn't you guys see it?" he asked. We all shook our heads. Even with my good vision, I wouldn't have known that it was there.

"No? Oh… well… let's see how much we got here." Something about this seemed fishy to me, but I just couldn't put my finger on it


	7. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Two hundred and thirty dollars. That is how much money Ethan had found. That much money would pay for all of our train tickets plus food.

We went to the ticket booth and purchased our tickets, and then we went to board our train. All the while, Kary was muttering something about Harry Potter and Platform 9 and ¾.

The whole train ride from Death Valley to San Francisco took about six hours, so we would get there at 7:00pm. The train stopped at several places, Stockton, Modesto, Merced, Martinez, and Fresno. We get off at the station in Oakland. The only thing I'm worried about is Erasers. Let's just hope they don't like the chilly San Francisco weather.

One Hour Later:

"Charlotte?" I looked over at Kary, "I'm hunnggrryyy" she whined.

"I'm not your mom. You're a big girl, go order your own food." I told her. She grabbed some cash and left. After five minutes she came back with a plate heaped with beans and rice, and a burrito. She started devouring it in a very unladylike manner. She looked up to find all of us staring at her, disgusted. She picked up her napkin and patted it daintily on her mouth and continued eating.

Three Hours Later:

Kary and Ethan were talking quietly together, while Ariek and I were laughing quiet loudly, earning a few glares from our fellow passengers. We both bored out of our minds and a little whacked out from being cooped up so long. We started telling knock-knock jokes and that progressed into joke extravaganza. I don't remember all of the jokes we said, but the majority of them were probably really stupid.

One Hour Later:

"Oh my God." I said.

"What?" Kary asked looking up from a Teen Vogue magazine.

"Oh my God! Oh my God!"

"What!"

"Oh my goodness! Thank heaven and Lord above!"

"Charlotte, if you don't tell me now I'm going to rip you limb from limb and then dump your body in a vat of boiling acid."

"Okie dokie then… Anyway, they have a Ghiradelli factory in San Francisco!" I was looking at a brochure that was about all the "fun and exiting" things you could do in San Fran.

"Really? That's it?"

" 'That's it'? It's a **CHOCOLATE **factory!"

"So?"

"If you cannot appreciate the amazingness of this, then I can't speak to you anymore." I told her. She just rolled her eyes and went back to her magazine.

The very last hour on this freaking train:

We were all pretty burnt out and patience was running low. Ariek and Kary, who were pretty much the best siblings ever, never fought or anything, were at each other's throats. "Ariek! Don't shove me!"

"Don't be such a baby! I barely touched you."

They kept bickering like that until Ethan shouted out "Quit it will you? We are almost there, and if you two don't be quiet we are going all the way back. So shut it, okay?" Ariek and Kary just stared at him, stunned. They turned to me in disbelief, their faces asking "Is he serious?" I nodded and sort of like flicking on a switch they were back to normal. Kary picked up a magazine she had read five times already and started leafing through it. Ariek leaned back, got comfortable and closed his eyes. Within minutes he was already snoring softly.

"Good job." I said to Ethan high-fiving him.

"I know." He said smirking.


	8. Chapter 15

**I sorta wrote this at 12:40 in the morning...**

* * *

><p>Chapter 15<p>

"Rise and shine, sleeping beauty!" I called out to Ariek, hoping to arose him from the deep slumber he was in. Sadly, he just groaned and rolled over. When we arrived in the lovely Oakland area we immediately booked our hotel room and crashed. The room we got had two separate bedrooms, a living room type thing, and a little kitchen.

I was doing my best to wake Ariek up in a nice and soothing way.

"IF YOU DON'T GET UP RIGHT NOW I'M GOING TO DO A FUCKING TAP DANCE ON YOUR FACE!"

After that he was more than willing to wake up. See, nice and soothing works like a charm.

"Okay guys. We need to make a plan." I said over a breakfast of scrambled eggs, toaster waffles, and poptarts

. "Shopping!" Kary sang out.

"I really want to go to Fenton's. You know that ice cream place?" Ethan suggested.

"Okaayyy. Those are all good but I meant a plan on how to take down the school."

"Can't we do that, like, later? I know its important and all, but I want to do something fun." Kary asked throwing out a Bambi look for good measure. When I finally couldn't stand to fight the power of her look I said "Oh alright. But tomorrow we get started on the plan. Got it?"

"Aye-Aye captain!"

We spent the rest of the day wandering around San Francisco. We went shopping, for Kary. The whole time both boys looked like they were going to shoot their heads off. In every place we went to, I had to stop Kary from buying the whole store.

"We need to save our money. And where are you going to put all those clothes anyways? It's just too difficult." I reasoned with her.

Next we went to Fenton's. They have about the best ice cream I have ever tasted. I got chocolate, Ariek got mint chocolate chip, Kary got rainbow sherbet, and Ethan got coffee. There was this Chinese restaurant, called Little Shin Shins, which Ethan wanted to try out. But upon looking at a menu, we found the prices a little high for our liking.

Then we went to the famous China town. We ambled around there for a while. It was actually pretty cool. And then after almost a full day of doing things everyone else wanted to do, it was finally my turn. Ghiradelli here I come!


	9. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Here's a tip: never ever ever in a billion years EVER give Charlotte chocolate. It's probably the worst mistake ever made. She turns into a crazy, maniacal, psychopath. Her plus chocolate equals like a nuclear bomb.

Let's rewind. We went to the Ghiradelli Chocolate factory, took a tour, blah blah blah. Then we were practically dragged into the store that they had by Charlotte. She bought two **big** bags of the chocolate squares. We went back to the motel where she proceeded to eat both bags. By herself.

Her sugar rush started out as normal as any other. She was laughing a lot, and bouncing around. But near the end of the second bag, she went insane. She was becoming increasingly louder, laughing longer, and just being plain weird. She started acting like a dinosaur, and when we asked he what she was doing she cried out "I'm Charlo-saurus!" in a British accent.

A list, for your entertainment, of what Charlotte was doing:

Found out she could do eleven cartwheels in a row

Danced around like an idiot

When it got really quiet she screamed "Oatmeal? Are you CRAZY?"

Sang various songs that didn't make any sense. For example, and I quote:

I was once a tree house

I lived in a cake

But I never saw the way

The orange slayed the rake

I was only three years dead

But it told the tale

And now listen, little child

To the safety rail

Pretended to be a velociraptor and "ate" Ethan's head

When one of us cussed she reprimanded us by saying "Don't fucking curse, goddammit!"

Number of times she made a gremlin face: 37

Longest amount of time she spent laughing: 10 minutes

And now back to the present.

Charlotte had found a pencil and was waving it around like a wand, and shouting out random gibberish. Right as she was about to "kill" Ariek, she froze. Terror was plastered all over her face.

"Charlotte? What's wrong?" Ariek asked, concerned.

"It's **Them**." She stated in a chilling voice. But before any of us could respond, she turned on her heel and jumped through the closed window, shattering glass everywhere.

"_What is going on?"_ I thought.


	10. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

CRASH! The love of my life just went out the window. I'm not saying that in a metaphorical way. None of us knew how to react; we just stood there with our heads reeling from what happened. What did she mean, "It's Them." Who's "Them"? Unfortunately it didn't take long to find out.

There was a thunder of footsteps coming down the corridor. They would soon be at our door. I glanced over at Ethan, what I saw was far from reassuring. He looked scared as hell. He was muttering to himself. I strained my ears and caught a bit of what he was saying: "This is all wrong… I told them to wait for my signal." But I must've heard wrong or something.

The footsteps had reached our room. To my immense disappointment they did not continue down the hall. Instead there was a loud banging noise on our door. At least they're being polite and knocking.

"Uh, who is it?" I called out, softly. Kary smacked my arm and put a finger to her lips. The knocking increased in volume and speed and then stopped suddenly. There was an eerie silence that was broken by the crashing noise of a door being broken down.

Six or seven men piled into the room, stepping over the splintered wreck of our door. They seemed pretty normal; there wasn't that evil glint in their eyes like Erasers. But, there was something off about them.

"Where is subject 34?" the one who I assumed was the leader, demanded. No one spoke; we just stared straight ahead not looking at anyone or anything. He stated his question again, but slower and louder probably thinking we were foreign. Again no one cared to answer him.

"Alright, we'll just leave then." He said turning around. It happened in a split second. Moving with a speed that wasn't humanly possible, he turned back around, lunged forward and grabbed Kary. Once I understood what just happened, I yelled

"No! Let her go!"

"Ariek!" Kary groaned. Shit… I forgot we weren't supposed to say anything. Oh well, time for plan B.


	11. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

_They will be fine,_ I told myself. _It's me they're looking for. _I was flying steadily north, trying to put as much distance between me and the Readers.

Readers were genetically enhanced people. But instead of animal DNA, they can feel your emotions and when they have a good grip on your mind, they can control it. They're not as hotheaded as the Erasers. They were used for special jobs, ones that required self control and common sense.

_They will be fine_, I repeated. Just as I thought that, a memory flitted across my mind. It was of my experiences with the Readers. They were making me walk towards them, and laughing at my fear. The shaky feeling I got after I felt them leave my mind, like how my head wasn't mine anymore.

_They **wouldn't** be fine. No one is fine after dealing with them. _

I wheeled around and started flying at top speed back towards the motel. Not even slowing down, I flew right through the shattered window and straight into someone's back. We toppled to the ground. Looking down I saw it was one of the Readers, and he was out cold. I glanced up, my raptor vision taking in a thousand details in seconds. A big Reader was holding Kary round the neck. Ariek looked like he was about to pounce. Ethan's face had the expression of full on terror.

_Ok, enough processing. Time for action._ I leapt up and launched myself at the nearest Reader. I clapped my cupped hands over his ears, rupturing his eardrums. Screaming he fell to his knees. I karate chopped his neck and he keeled over. I looked over and saw Kary had taken this distraction as an opportunity to escape. She elbowed her captor in the ribs. She managed to slip out of his now loosened grip. Ariek stepped in and was now in locked combat with the Reader. Ethan was off to the side, shifting his weight from foot to foot. As if he was debating whether to fight or not. Then a look of solid determination appeared on his face and he rushed over to help Kary.

A dizzying blow to the back of head, snapped me back to my predicament. Still slightly woozy, I whirled around to face my attacker. I planted a hard, roundhouse kick square in his chest. I got a couple good punches in and was bringing my hand back for another, when a Reader grabbed me from behind. He pinned my arms to my side, and held me tightly. I tried to stomp on his feet, but the other Reader backhanded me across the face. I felt the burning pain and wanted to cry out, but I blocked it out and bit down on the inside of my cheek. Kicking my legs out I tried to shake his grip.

"Let. Me. Go!" I yelled.

Then I heard a voice, clear and soft.

"Charlotte, stop." Then it was as if my body had a mind of its own. I stopped struggling, my legs perfectly still. "Very good." Called the voice "Now come over here." The Reader let me go and I walked over towards the voice. I stopped in front of the biggest, scariest Reader. But I felt no fear; instead I felt the urge to help him. Then a teeny, fragile sounding voice piped up in my head, "No! He's controlling you!" But that didn't make sense. He was the good guy. He was going to take me so I can become good too. The little voice came back, but louder and stronger, "Stop it Charlotte, this isn't you! You know who you are; you would never go with him!" That's right, I wouldn't. I looked up at the man I was so eager to help just a couple of seconds ago. His eyebrows were knit together in concentration, had had a deep frown etched on his face. I felt no urge to help him, instead I felt repulsion.

I felt the sensation of waking up from a very deep sleep. I then felt a surge of anger at realizing what had just happened. Out of the corner of my eye I saw one of the Readers start charging towards me. I stayed glued to the spot until the last minute. I jumped up as high as I could and went straight over his head. Still going full speed, he crashed into the big Reader. Their heads connected with a dull clunk, and they fell to the ground.

"Lets roll!" I yelled out. Immediately Ariek, Kary, and Ethan were by my side. We ran out of the room before anyone could react.

We sprinted down the hall and found the stairwell. We raced down the stairs, taking a couple at a time. After four flights of stairs we made it to the lobby. The sight of four breathless, beat up kids might have been distressing to some of the people milling around, but we didn't stick around long enough to find out.

We rushed out the double doors and out onto the street. Ethan pointed out a trolley that had just pulled up. We hid ourselves amongst a large group, and trouped aboard. When we had found our seats, I looked everyone over, accessing the damage.

Kary looked none to worse for wear, with a couple bruises and scratches. She was helping Ethan stem the blood gushing from his nose. "Stick a tampon in. It absorbs right up." Ariek said with a smile. I looked over at him and gasped. His lip was split in several places, his eye was puffy and was already starting to bruise. There were cuts and bruises all up and down his arms. There was a small gash on his face, from where I'm guessing he had been punched so hard it broke skin.

"Oh, shit..." I groaned. I grabbed our pack and took out a water bottle and a rag. I leaned over and started to clean up the blood on his face. When I went to put more water on the rag, I noticed him staring at me. I locked eyes with him, startled by the intensity of his gaze.

Without realizing what I was doing, I started leaning in closer towards him. Once we were almost nose to nose, I came to my senses and jerked backwards. I cleared my throat and didn't look at Ariek the rest of the ride. But I felt his eyes on me the whole time. I started wondering what would've happened if I hadn't backed away. And I found that the more I thought about, the more I wanted to find out.

_Oh god, what is wrong with me?_


	12. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

"The Readers have reported that you attacked them. Is that true?" Asked the spindly, greasy haired man. He was sitting behind a simple wooden desk in a dark room.

"Yes, but only for the sake of mission. I believe Subject 112 was becoming suspicious."

The man nodded and then said "Well you have to do a better job at selling yourself, don't you?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. So have they discussed their new plan?"

"They aren't going to leave San Francisco if that's what you mean. They're camping out in a secluded park."

"Camping in a park? How brainless. That makes them all the more vulnerable." Sneered the man, "We shall launch an attack immediately." He started to rise out of his chair.

"Sir, wait. I don't think you should attack just yet."

"No?"

"You should wait awhile; let them build a false sense of security. Then when they are least expecting it, you attack."

The man rubbed his chin thoughtfully while examining the boy. "That is an excellent plan. You are proving to be quite worthy, Ethan."


	13. Chapter 20

**Sorry this took awhile.. School kinda embedded its talons into the very core of my existence and sucked out my soul through my nostrils.. SO that was fun.**

* * *

><p>Chapter 20<p>

"Hey Charlotte! Come quick!" Ariek called from the trees that surrounded our little clearing. We've been camping here for about four days and there hasn't been any sign of Erasers, Readers, or Whitecoats.

"CHARLOTTE! COME HERE!"

"I'm coming! Calm down." I walked over to where he, Ethan, and Kary were standing.

"What?" I ask.

"Look!" Ariek says excitedly, pointing to Kary. She rolls her eyes and grabs Ethan's hand. Turning it palm up, I saw a large cut that was bleeding freely.

"Oh my god! Ethan let me clean that up." I said quickly. But he just smiled at me like "Oh silly Charlotte, so young and naïve." Kary put her index and middle finger in her mouth for about three seconds. She took them out and placed them on Ethan's cut. When she removed her fingers I saw the cut had instantly healed and all that was left was a small puckered line of a scar.'

"Kary, that's amazing!" I exclaimed. She rolled her eyes again.

"It's no big deal." She said shrugging.

"No big…" I trailed off. "Of course it's a big deal!" I yelled. Ariek shot me a look that said "It's not worth it." I took his word for it, and dropped the subject.

"Well. On an entirely different note, we need more supplies" I told them as we started walking back to the clearing.

"While we're there, I can also-" I stopped short at the sight of thousands of Erasers. But for some reason their eyes were glowing red.

"Flyboys." Ariek growled.

"Fight?" Kary breathed her voice barely a whisper.

"Too many. Any bright ideas?" I questioned, even softer than Kary.

"How about surrendering?" called a voice. I looked up and saw Ethan with is arms crossed, standing in front of the Flyboys.

"What?" I asked completely stupefied.

"Surrender. You don't stand a chance against them." He scoffed, gesturing to the army behind him. Still seeing our bewildered faces, he continued.

"Don't you guys get it? I was never on your side. All this time I had been passing information to the Whitecoats." A cold shock ran through my body, temporally paralyzing me. Kary, who seems to never have this problem, choked out,

"Ethan how could you?" he rolled his eyes and addressed her.

"It was quite easy, in fact. First I won your trust by 'saving' you from that Eraser back in Death Valley. Then I tricked you into believing my story about not being retired. I got you all that money for the train. Then 'found' the trolley that saved you from the Readers. You were just dumb enough to believe I was fighting for the same cause as you, or whatever."

Kary's bold demeanor fell and she collapsed into her brothers arms, sobbing. My mouth finally became unglued and I shouted at him,

"You bastard! After all I did for you, this is how you repay me?'

"_Tsk, Tsk _Charlotte. Don't you know better than to call people names? You're the leader after all. Shouldn't you have been more wary of me, suspicious of why I wasn't killed?"

"Don't you dare-"

"You should've heard me sneaking off during the middle of the night. You shouldn't have gotten too close to me until you were sure I was ok."

"No. Stop it."

"And as for all that you did for me? You're the one that got me sucked into this mess. You brought this all on yourself."

I was at a loss for words. We were defeated. But the worst part is that he is right.

It is all my fault.


	14. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

I was slipping. I could feel my mind slipping away, like water through my fingers.

Three weeks here and I'm going crazy. No. I'm not crazy, crazy people are crazy. I'm just…

I don't know what to do with myself. I have no plan, no encouragement, no anything. Not even a mind. Ariek and Karyanna expect everything from me. Everything I don't have. I just sit curled up in my cage, always looking forward, barely speaking. I listen to what Kary and Ariek say about me when they think I'm asleep. They don't know what's going on. They think its all part of the plan. Riiiight.

Sometimes I listen in on the Whitecoats conversations. They find what's happening fascinating. Mind deterioration, they called it. Glad at least someone finds me fascinating. And not crazy.

Crazy.

Ethan said it was my fault. I'm the reason this happened. And he is one hundred percent right. If only I hadn't been so damn ignorant.

"Charlotte, don't let anyone ever see your wings. Promise me." Never show anyone who I truly was. I hated it. But I never dared to disobey my parents. Until one day. The day I met Ethan. I don't know why I felt so compelled to show him. But I did. And we both payed the price.

I wasn't allowed to go anywhere without my parents, but I snuck off one day to show Ethan my favorite place. The Park. I was so overjoyed with my success that I failed to notice the two men that had been tailing us. We were both taken that day.

"Charlotte your wings are so cool, I wish I had a pair too!" Little did he know that you had to go through Hell to get them.

Now because of my stupidity and recklessness I put him through that and he hates me for it. I don't blame him, that makes two of us.

I need to get out of here. Fly as far away from here. Start a new life. But that won't happen. I'm not leaving.

There's no one who can save me.


	15. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Ariek POV

Saying things have gone from bad to worse is a major understatement. Charlotte has just stopped trying. She has lost the will to live. I just can't stand to see the life draining out of her anymore. We need to escape.

Our savior came in the form of a Whitecoat, strange I know.

"All right subjects, I have an announcement." Boomed the Whitecoat, ceasing everyone's attention immediately. We all turned to look up at him, some children quaking with fear.

"We're going on a fieldtrip of sorts. We will be traveling to Paris, France. There is a demonstration going on and we wouldn't want you to miss it." I stared at him in disbelief._ What's the catch?_

"You will not be given a place to stay or any money. You must stay in the city limits. And to make sure you do, each of you will be given a bracelet that has a tracking device, and it will also give you a little shock if you step out of bounds."

_Ah. There it is._

"Those who try to leave will be dealt with immediately. We will be leaving in a few hours. Someone will come around with the bracelets soon. Now, I need a couple of you for some last minute testing." And with that, he picked out three or four mutants and led them down the hall.

Kary looked absolutely giddy.

"Ariek, do you know what this means? We're leaving! We can go home!" she was right. It was finally the chance we've been waiting for. It was the first time I felt true happiness in a while, I grinned back at her. Then Charlotte spoke. Her voice was low and raspy from lack of use.

"No. they're taking extra care to make sure we stay in Paris. If there wasn't anything going on, they would've just killed us off, without wasting time and money by taking us across the country. It's that demonstration he talked about. It's a doomsday event, I heard some Whitecoats talking about it. And let's not forget the tracking bracelets." I felt my smile falter, that warm happy feeling was slowly ebbing away. Kary was looking at Charlotte in that calculating way of hers, then asked "Jesus, what happened to you?"

"What? It's the truth, sorry to rain on your parade. I'm all out of ideas. I have no plan whatsoever."

"So you're just giving up? That's no the Charlotte I know. The girl I used to know would've stopped at nothing till she was free! She fought for herself and the people she loved! Where'd that girl go?" I asked her, disgusted with her attitude. And for the first time in three weeks, she looked me in the eye and said

"That girl is gone. And you have no idea how much I miss her."


	16. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

I just couldn't believe what I was hearing. All that was left of Charlotte was the empty shell of the girl that I loved.

No. I refuse to lose her.

"Well, we'll just have to get her back, don't we? And I'll be damned if we lose anyone along the way." I said cajolingly, trying and failing to get motivated. If what Charlotte said was true, in a few hours we'll be flying across the world to our imminent deaths.

Charlotte just looked at me with her round, beautiful eyes, and for a second I thought I saw a glimmer of that steely look she used to have. But I blinked and it was gone. She turned away and sank back into her usual stupor. Kary and I discussed Paris a bit more until Kary decided to get a little rest in before we left.

I was about to follow her example when something happened.

Charlotte POV

I'm not crazy.

I'm not crazy.

I'm not crazy.

I'm not crazy.

It was the mantra that I had been constantly repeating in my head. I was sick of it. Sick of what I had become.

But I couldn't help it. It was my punishment for everything that had happened. All of it was my fault. It was my fault we got captured. It was my fault Kary got her heart broken. It's my fault we were about to die.

It's my fault. All my fault. My fault. My fault. My fault. My fault. My fault. My fault. My fault. My fault. My fault. My fault. My fault. My fault. My fault. My fault. My fault.

"ALL MY FAULT!" I screamed out. I started sobbing uncontrollably, only able to whisper "My fault" over and over. Everything just came crashing down on me like huge waves crashing on the shore. Unable to stop it or do much of anything.

All my fault.

"Charlotte! Are you ok?" Ariek asked, his voice concerned and twinged with panic. But I couldn't hear it, not really. All I could hear was a high pitched keening sound. It wasn't until later did I realize that it was me.

My fault.

"Charlotte look at me!" Ariek yelled. He reached through the bars of his cage and grabbed my face in his hands.

"What's the matter? Tell me." he commanded. Tears were streaming down my cheeks. I just shook my head.

"My fault" I whispered.

"What? What's your fault?" Ariek demanded. All the other children were staring at me, but I didn't see them. All I saw was Ariek, he was crying. See what I do to people.

My fault.

Just then a couple Whitecoats walked in, and came up to my cage. I didn't even glance at them; I kept my eyes on Ariek.

"Charlotte, what was your fault? Tell me, hurry."

"I'm sorry." I told him. At that moment the Whitecoats reached into my cage and dragged me out.

Ariek POV

I couldn't feel anything. I was numb as I watched the Whitecoats pull Charlotte out of the room. I'll admit she was putting up a terrific fight. Kicking and screaming the whole way.

What had she meant it was "her fault"? Her fault we were here? If anything it's the Whitecoats fault for playing this sick game of world domination.

"Ariek?" Kary asked timidly. Taking a deep breath and steadying myself. I answered her, not taking my eyes off the door where charlotte had gone through.

"Yeah?"

"Are you ok? You're crying." Shocked, I lifted my to my cheek and sure enough my hands felt the wetness of tears.

"Is Charlotte going to be ok?"

"Of course, you know how tough she is. She'll be as good as new in no time."

Looking far from reassured, Kary nodded and turned away to answer the other kid's questions.

I wasn't sure how to feel. Devastated? Yes, but I couldn't look weak in front of Kary. She needs me to be strong. Hopeful, maybe. But after seeing that look in charlotte's eyes, the look that makes you think that something isn't quite right up there, makes you feel that there is no way she'll be back to normal.

So what was I left with? A numb body, a confused and depressed head, eyes that no matter what will not stop crying. And a heart that's been shattered to pieces.


	17. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Two middle aged men in white lab coats were standing over an unconscious girl lying on a metal table. She looked around 14 or 15.

"I can't believe it worked." Said one man, breathlessly.

"And she wont remember any of it?" asked the other.

"Not a thing."

"Such a shame though, the biggest advancement in mental warfare, and the subject won't even remember it."

"True, but how would you feel if someone told you every detail, every _second, _of your life had been meticulously planned out till this point in time. And there was nothing you could've done to stop it?"

The other man nodded in agreement.

"And when you say 'every second of her life'?"

"I mean everything. Meeting and befriending Ethan, all of her time at the School and the Institute, Ethan's whole speech back in San Francisco. All of this was planned to make her feel that everything bad that had happened was entirely because of her. We only imagined what kind of effect it would have on her mind." He paused, his brow furrowing. "We could've let it continue, you know. See how long it would take for her mind to self-destruct, so to speak."

"So after all that you're still going to let her die along with all the others?"

"Directors orders." He said bitterly. In truth, he would've much rather kept her brain for more testing. But he wasn't asking for a death wish, so to Paris she goes.

At this point the girl began to shift, so the two men carefully picked her up and carried her out of the room.

Charlotte POV

I awoke in my cage with a splitting headache. I glanced over at Ariek and he was fast asleep. I thought back to the dream I was having. I was running from something, not really caring where I was going, as long it was a far away from the thing as possible. All the while I could hear these voices speaking softly. I don't remember much of what they said, but it was something about mental warfare and planning out someone's life. Considering all the weird dreams I've had, this one certainly is at the top of the list. Still, I couldn't shake the feeling that the voices were talking about me. But it was only a dream.

Just then I got distracted from my ponderings, I had started thinking about that one song "It was only just a dream" I only realized, a little too late, that the song was extremely catchy and became lodged in my head, and refused to leave. Great, now I would have to deal with this stupid song all the way to Paris.

I was interrupted from my internal rantings by a group of Whitecoats. Most of who were dragging those trolley things, like they have in hotels.

"Its time to leave." One of them announced. He was just an average looking Whitecoat, but his voice sounded really familiar. But I was sure I had never seen him before.

I looked over at Ariek only to find him still sleeping.

"Wake-y wake-y, eggs and bac-ey!" I said in a sing-song voice.

Nothing. Not even a grunt or something.

So, I did the next best thing.

'AARGH!" he yelled as he sat bolt upright, or as upright you can get in a cage, his hand on his ear.

I gave him a wet willy.

"He lives!" I say. This disturbance wakes Kary who also had been slumbering.

"Charlotte?" Ariek asked, looking completely bewildered. Who else would stick their finger in his ear? Kary looked equally as confused. Both looked like they had been crying.

"No, Santa Claus." I said sarcastically. "Christmas came early motherfucker."

I expected them to bust out laughing, but they didn't even crack a smile. Ariek's lips twitched a bit at the corners.

"Jeez, what happened to you guys?"

"We should be asking you that!" Ariek said indignantly.

"What are you talking about?"

Ariek and Kary shared this long look together, and then Ariek turned slowly to face me. He took a deep breath and opened his mouth to speak but the group of Whitecoats had come to our section. They grabbed Ariek's and Kary's cages and stacked them one on top the other on a trolley. They were whisked away before Ariek had a chance to get a single word out.

There weren't any seats on the plane, so the Whitecoats just stacked our cages wherever. Ariek and Kary were up towards the front, whereas I was all the way in the back.

I was right next to a little girl who reminded me painfully of little Jamie. The image was ruined when she turned and sneered when she saw me.

"Oh lookie what we have here. Straight out of the mental ward. Don't want to get to close; some of the crazy might rub off on me."

I said something real intelligent back like; "What?"

What was going on? First Ariek had looked at me like I was the ghost of Christmas Past or something. And now this bitchy little girl is acting like I have some mental disease.

The girl just laughed a cold and humorless laugh.

"The poor sweetheart. Doesn't remember a thing. Don't worry your pretty little messed up head. Everything if fine. According to them."

Utterly confused, I didn't say anything. I looked closer at the girl and saw she had patched of fish scales all over her face and arms. Her eyes were abnormally large and darted to and fro constantly.

Before I could question her, she scoffed and turned away and ignored me for the rest of the extremely long plane ride.

When we finally landed, we were put back on the trolleys and wheeled away. We where then loaded into the back of a semi. We drove along a bumpy road for god knows how long. I couldn't see Ariek or Kary anywhere. The little fish girl was a little bit away looking completely at ease.

When the truck lurched to a stop, I could hear the din of thousands of people screaming and chanting.


End file.
